Songwriting Exercises

Songwriting exercises help you do a couple of things: (1) practice your songwriting skills so over time the entire process comes more easily, and (2) have techniques in your tool bag to get you beyond the blank page.

Below you’ll find some quick drills to sharpen your skills, song prompts to get a full song started, and some longer exercises if you have more time in your day.

Quick Drills (1 Hour Or Less!)

1 Create (And Follow) Your Own Rules

Give yourself some rules, then write within those:

The song has to take place over the course of 30 years, but you can’t mention that fact

You can’t use a bridge or a pre-chorus ( V | V | V )

Only use three chords: Bm F#m E or A C E

The song can only take place in a 15 minute window of time (my song following this rule below)

2 Rhyme Pattern Proxy

This one is great to use if you’re stuck on a song and works pretty quickly. The goal is to force you to find new words or ways to phrase what you’re trying to say. Have your rhyming dictionary ready!

Pick a song you like

Identify the rhyme pattern for each of its parts

Now take a song you’ve been working on (in progress) and use the new rhyme pattern